Anti-Gay Pastor Announces Plans to Run for Governor of Mass.

Controversial anti-gay pastor Scott Lively announced on Monday his intentions to run for governor of Massachusetts. This announcement comes less than two weeks after the fundamentalist pastor publicly claimed in an interview with NBC News that he was responsible for helping pass Russia's "homosexual propaganda" law. Additionally, In August, a federal U.S. judge ruled in favor of a case filed by a Ugandan advocacy group against Lively for his collaboration with religious and government officials in Uganda that led to the introduction of the African nation's "Kill the Gays" bill.

"The people of this state need a candidate who can clearly and unapologetically articulate Biblical values without fear or compromise. They need a candidate who will tell the simple truth that abortion is murder, and homosexuality is condemned by God (but that Jesus forgives and heals those who repent)." Lively said in a press release issued by his ministry yesterday, lamenting that "Massachusetts is the bluest of the blue states: the first to adopt socialized medicine and "gay marriage," the national model for promoting homosexuality to children in the public schools, and the most aggressive defender of child-killing through abortion."

Lively, who plans to run as an independent, claims that "The Mass Republican Party is solidly controlled by moderate to liberal 'progressives' and the Democrats are virtual communists." He further optimistically states in the press release, "With these two liberal parties splitting the liberal vote, a true conservative independent could win the governorship."

"Yes, I influenced the Russian law" Lively told NBC News in an interview where he lauded Russian President Vladimir Putin for signing the anti-gay measure into law, calling him "the defender of Christian civilization."

In August, US District Judge, Michael Ponsor of Massachusetts ruled that a case filed by a Ugandan LGBT advocacy group against Lively for his influence in introducing the African nation's "Kill the Gays" bill would be allowed to proceed, stating that "Widespread, systematic persecution of LGBTI people constitutes a crime against humanity that unquestionably violates international norms."

The landmark decision by Ponsor marked the first ruling by a federal U.S. judge that called the persecution of LGBT persons a crime against humanity, possibly setting a precedent for the human rights of sexual minorities will be protected under international law. Attempts by Lively to dismiss the case were denied in September by the Springfield division of the U.S. District Court, Massachusetts.

A former attorney, Lively is co-author of the 1995 universally debunked tome "The Pink Swastika," which, according to the authors' notes, asserts that "the Nazi Party was conceived, organized and controlled throughout its short history by masculine-oriented male homosexuals who hid their sexual proclivities from the public, in part by publicly persecuting one group of their political enemies: out-of-the-closet effeminate-oriented homosexuals aligned with the German Communist Party."

In 2008, Lively started the Redemption Gate Mission Society, whose aim is to "re-Christianize" the city of Springfield, Mass., where he resides.

His Abiding Truth Ministries has been designated a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center.